igus announced trials of “tribo-filament”, which apparently is substantially more wear-resistant than other 3D printer filaments.

The company says the material is designed for “dynamic applications”, meaning bearings or other features that involve a lot of friction. Typical plastics like ABS or PLA will degrade due to friction.

This chart from igus illustrates the extremely low abrasive characteristics, which they say is “up to 50 times more abrasion-resistant than conventional 3D printer materials.”

It may be that we see a jump in the number of mechanical devices as a result of this material’s availability. Even existing designs will become longer-lived, as joints and friction-bearing surfaces will last much longer.

For now the product is available only as a sample, which you can request at the link below.

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